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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: Youtube screenshot.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded the leaders of Switzerland and the Netherlands on Wednesday following their decisions to halt funding for Palestinian NGOs involved in incitement.

“I welcome the Swiss parliament’s decision to require the Swiss government not to finance NGOs that foster hate, racism, anti-Semitism and incitement,” Netanyahu said before flying to Thessaloniki for an annual summit of Greek, Cypriot and Israeli leaders.

On Tuesday, the Swiss Council of States voted by a 111-78 majority to take measures that would prevent funding for NGOs “involved in racist, antisemitic or hate incitement actions.” Many of the Palestinian NGOs that have received millions of dollars of Swiss public funds are involved in promoting the BDS campaign against Israel, along with other delegitimization activities.

Netanyahu also commended “the Dutch government and my friend, Prime Minister Mark Rutte, for their decision to stop financing the Palestinian terrorist NGO that extols the memory of Dalal Mughrabi and to reconsider the financing that the Netherlands provides to other NGOs.”

Norway and the UN have also severed ties with a community center in the West Bank village of Burqa named for Dalal Mughrabi, a Fatah terrorist responsible for the bloodiest terror attack in Israel’s history in which 38 people died.

Gerald Steinberg — president of the Israeli watchdog NGO Monitor — said the Swiss and Dutch announcements reflected Netanyahu’s placing of “a high priority on pressuring European leaders to end irresponsible funding to NGOs involved in BDS and antisemitism, and with links to terror groups.”

“This effort has begun to succeed,” he told The Algemeiner on Wednesday.

Steinberg pointed out that, following the publication of NGO Monitor research, “Norway stopped $1 million in grants to a group of 24 radical NGOs; Denmark froze funds to this group pending a review. The Netherlands cut the budget of one NGO and is likely to follow the others in a broader investigation.”

“Taken together, it appears that European leaders are finally stepping in to end support to false-flag NGOs that use the language of human rights while doing the opposite,” Steinberg said.